Sports competition and entertainment machines are known. Such existing sports competition and entertainment machines are usually limited to a few types. For example, some machines consist of a soccer-like or hockey-like gameboard where the two sides compete for an object which can be moved around the field of play by elements situated across the gameboard, wherein the elements are governed by the players through controls. The aim of such games is getting the object into an opposing goal.
Another type of existing machine is designed so that the players shoot a chip or ball to each other from one side of the gameboard to the other, until one of the players scores a point by introducing the chip or ball into the opposing goal.
In theses machines, however, the movement of the ball or chip is two-dimensional. For example, the machine described in PCT/ES94/00024, incorporated herein by reference, is one example of such a machine.
In some types of the aforementioned machines, the gameball is usually able to move completely freely when it, for example, is in a pocket or propelling means and is expelled towards a basket or a goal. However, in these machines, the gameball's three-dimensional freedom of movement is not permanently controllable in terms of movement and position. Thus, for three-dimensional games like tennis, which to be played properly within the limited space of a machine, require total control over the position and movements of the ball, such machines are not suitable.
At present there are no machines for sports competitions like tennis, table-tennis and volleyball, where the ball or object in play has three-dimensional freedom of movement; where the ball or object is mounted on a mechanical apparatus; where a set of controls may be manipulated by a user to signal the mechanical apparatus as to the desired direction and force for moving the ball or object; where the mechanical apparatus receives the signals from the set of controls and responds to the signals by moving the ball or object in accordance with the signals; and the motion of the ball or object is controlled at all times by the mechanical apparatus such that the ball or object is prevented from leaving the gameboard and going out of the players' control.
In contrast to models currently on the market, the machine described herein permits competition through the activation of a mobile object or gameball, where this gameball or mobile element can be moved freely three-dimensionally within a limited volume of game zone; where both the position of this gameball within the limits of the volume of space of free movement determined by the machine's systems, its position in relation to the zones of the filed of play which the player wishes to control and the authorized repulsion sectors which perform the function of racquets, depending on the kind of game, are all controlled at all times.
Construction of the invention described herein produces an automatically-controlled machine. This machine is made all the more attractive by the wide variety of possible operations in a game, the fact that it is possible to play games like tennis and volleyball and the fact that using the machine requires physical exercise, training and use of the reflexes.
For the above reasons, learning to master and enjoy the game will appeal to a very wide sector of the public. Basically, the machine is a new product concept with better commercial prospects than existing machines along the same lines. The new design of the machine allowing new kinds of competition, the easily-understood operation of the games and the accessible production costs result in a product of great commercial potential on both domestic and international markets.
The result of the above is a world novelty with many market options due to the scarcity of novelty products in the sports competition market. Therefore, the creation of manufacturing structures and the generation of these new products is viable. In commercial terms it is necessary to produce a new generation of sports competition and entertainment games using an object with three-dimensional movement. The range of game options presently available in the machines currently on the market can be widened by incorporating new inventions with game possibilities that make machines simpler and more reliable, comfortable, entertaining, educational, and, above all, safe.